EMC news – Pet ownership by homeless street youth has some downsides but more upsides. This is the view of Dr. Michelle Lem who founded Community Veterinary Outreach which provides veterinary services to the pets of the homeless and who herself is working on a Master’s thesis which involves epidemiology research about street youth who are pet owners. As she told members of the Rotary Club of Ottawa – Stittsville at their meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 2, her work has found that pet ownership by homeless street youth does have certain liabilities such as affecting their ability to find shelter since homeless shelters do not allow pets, affecting their employment prospects since they generally have no place to leave their pets while working, adding more demands since they have to feed both themselves and their pet, the potentially damaging impact of losing the pet and a negative public view based on a perception that if a homeless youth cannot look after himself or herself, how can the youth also look after a pet. Read more: http://www.emcstittsvillerichmond.ca/20121011/news/Pets+help+street+youth